"Social Linguistics And Literacy" by James Paul Gee

This is a little summary of the essay. In this report James Paul Gee (1996) from his book Social Linguistics And Literacy has given the idea that literacy is not just the ability to read and write but it is mush more than that. It is the knowledge of different "discourses" which are part of our personalities and the knowledge of the beliefs and values connected to these discourses. He also gives the idea of a …

…conquest and cooperation; division and unity; manipulation and organization; cultural invasion and cultural synthesis; he manages to show us the destructive and violent aspects of the banking concept of education. We have to agree with him as he makes us feel the importance of the pedagogy of the oppressed which is needed for the transformation of an unjust reality but which eventually "becomes a pedagogy of all people in the process of permanent liberation."(p.54).